Most knitters have a kind of orphanage part of our yarn stashes. This is the place where odd, unwanted balls of yarn from finished projects go to languish. Too small to be a part of a large project yet too big to be throw away. So sad.
The solution comes in the form of the best idea I've seen for a knitting website since Ravelry. Ladies and gents of the Knit may I introduce Oddballs.
The idea is pretty much what it says on the tin. You subscribe for a three, one or six-year membership then get rid of or find the yarn of your choice. The site links orphan balls of yarn with those searching for yarn to reunite with an unfinished project and vice versa. Soon yarn is finding new homes and loving projects when it thought it would be alone forever.
The site also lists accessories in case you've lost a DPN or can't find a 4.5mm.
It's a beautiful end to the tragedy of lonely yarn and a healing home for those WIPs you thought you would never finish. All hail, Oddballs!
There are a ton of patterns out there for crocheted bags and not all of them leave me very inspired as combinations of squares and sewing up are rife. Occasionally a goodun' does come along and when it's a good as this simple little bag you feel the need to share.
The free pattern for the Munro Bag from Roman Sock is about as simple as crochet a bag gets. The simple zig-zag pattern and cool colour combination make it a quick and easy project to keep to yourself of hook together for a friend in dire need of a bag makeover.
You can see some of her far-too-cute amigurumi creations over at Curiousity Cute too.
There is no arguing with the fact that amigurumi is just cool. Make a creature that is small, woolly and has a beseeching pair of peepers and people are falling over themselves to get in on making some of the cute for themselves. An amigurumi dragon, you say? Go on then.
This Fierce but Friendly Really Dragon is a cute and scaly free pattern from Crafters crafter Angry Angel. He's cute, he's crocheted and you can use him to scare the bejesus out of entire tiny villages once he's sewn together.
Amigurumi meets fire-breathing cuteness. Win.
At last the weather is starting to turn a bit miserable and us fans of the woolly can begin planning a parade of cosy WIPs to keep us company as the we amble towards autumn. Starting you off from the top down I present a natty little slouch beret from one of craft's queens.
Vickie Howell's Urban Jungle slouch beret is a free crochet pattern offered on Caron Yarns and is a simple project to kick off your craft for the coming cold. Its put together in a handy PDF too so its pretty much all ready for you to print out and get hooking.
Caron also offers a bundle of other free patterns for you to get your needles into both knitwise and crochet.
You can see many more projects and patterns from the lovely Ms Howell on her website here.
Fingers really should be more interesting. There they are attached to your hands looking pink and rather dull. What's to be done? Perhaps attaching horribly cute animals to them might help.
A handful of crochet 'Wild Thing' Finger Puppets from Meet Me at Mike's and your fingers can safely start a wild rumpus in their new crocheted garb. Hurrah!
The tutorial reckons it takes 15 minutes to whip up a wild thing for your fingers and there's tips on customising your finger fellows too.
Meet Me at Mike's is rather fabulous for a whole raft of craft tutorials so make sure you have a wander through the rest of the site once your fingers are better dressed. In particular there is some lovely embroidery for you to get your needles into.
Waves of wool-flavoured anticipation are sweeping through the fibre-flinging world as a brand-new shiny knitting show prepares to turn London knitwise.
Knit Nation is the knit-scented brainchild of Alice Yu and Cookie A. It promises to bring the finest in yarn, stitchmakers accessories, workshops and knitting mayhem to London in an all-bleating, all-knitting explosion.
From the 29th to the 31st of July Imperial College London will become Knit Nation central with classes on the Thursday and all manner of marketplace goodies for the other two days.
There's also an exclusive talk on Ravelry by Jess and Casey, the Posh and Becks of Knitting Social Networking.
With names like The Bothered Owl, Ysolda, Purlescence and Rohrspatz & Wollmeise it promises to be one hell of a knitting event.
Find out more on the website or read Stitch London's All About Knit Nation if you're still confused.
See you there.
For those of you who get bored with crochet patterns that seem to go without an end here's a nifty little one for you. A scarf made up of teeny tiny squares that you can churn out at your whim.
The Little Squares Scarf from Do You Mind If I Knit deals with that common complaint of startitis that many of us stitchers feel.
- If you fancy crocheting a little square or seven then go ahead.
- Then forget about it for a while and move on to something else.
- Once your antsiness has worn off you can return to your pile of squares and chain a few more.
It can take you a week. It can take you a year.
I like the idea of making a square or two in yarn leftover from other projects so your scarf becomes a record of all your other stitching triumphs. You can add to it as you move through your other stitching projects.
Just don't ask me to help you sew the tiny squares together.
digg this |
del.icio.us this
| 
Stumble It!
